As a beginning piano student, you get used to your teacher correcting you at every step. Curve your fingers! Count carefully! Practice like this! A good piano teacher is a disciplinarian: he or she makes sure that students use the correct fingering, the correct hand position, the correct technique. Beginning students feel constrained by all the rules. Why can't they do it another way? It's easier to slouch or play with poor technique. But their teachers stand firm -- and rightfully so! Someday, the young beginner may grow to be an accomplished pianist.